Are Pittsburgh businesses complying with the citywide ban on plastic bags?

Five months after Pittsburgh began enforcing its ban on single-use plastic bags, PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center staff and volunteers surveyed 50 restaurants and retail establishments to see if local businesses were actually complying with this important environmental law.

The good news: our research found that over 80% of Pittsburgh businesses surveyed were no longer distributing single-use plastic bags, in compliance with the citywide ordinance.  Retail locations fared especially well, with 93% of those we surveyed having gone plastic-bag-free. Unfortunately, surveys taken from the restaurant sector lagged dramatically behind the overall average. Restaurants only achieved a 68% compliance rate in our survey.

Our findings earned coverage across Pittsburgh’s media outlets, including all of the city’s TV news stations (like this piece from WPXI), Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate, the two major newspaper outlets and one of the city’s online news sources, NEXTpittsburgh. We were joined at our news conference releasing the survey results by Humane Action Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Resources Council, and the office of Pittsburgh City Councilperson Erika Strassburger. 

To see the full story and recommendations, check out our findings.